


Pyrrha Rising

by SpokaneValleyFreeway



Category: RWBY
Genre: Car Chases, F/M, Near Death Experiences, Near Future
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-04
Updated: 2019-10-04
Packaged: 2020-11-24 00:17:33
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 9,019
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20898512
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpokaneValleyFreeway/pseuds/SpokaneValleyFreeway
Summary: Twelve years after the battle for Beacon, in the world where the Grimm are no longer threats, a new terrorist group known as The Disciples have established their presence on Remnant. As each Disciple Event gets bigger and the risks pile up, the Security of Four Kingdoms rises to meet them. During one of these events, Pyrrha, her husband Jaune, and their daughter Penny, are all caught in the middle.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> My writing style is third-person and present-tense.
> 
> Mountain Home is a rebuilt version of Mountain Glenn, and was named after the real-life city of Mountain Home, Idaho.
> 
> Pyrrha Nikos and the remaining characters of RWBY are property of Rooster Teeth and Monty Oum. RIP
> 
> I was given permission by the creator of this art to turn it into a written fanfic.  
https://davidellisartwork.deviantart.com/art/Pyrrha-Nikos-Arc-Stealth-suit-Concept-668826468

**// February 1, 2016**   
** // 840pm**

Two women, one equipped with a shield and the other engulfed in flames, crash to the floor entangled in each other's limbs. The flaming woman has short, dark hair and literal fire in her eyes. The shield woman has bright red hair as long as her back, pulled into a long ponytail.

The impact leaves a smoldering hole in the floor, as the girl with red hair tumbles across the open-air office and slams into a wall with her back. The flaming woman flips to her feet effortlessly and launches balls of fire at the other woman, who deflects them with her shield, leaping in for more close-range attacks.

**// 842pm**

A young woman with long white hair stops to pull her phone out of the pocket in her silver battle skirt. A second young woman, this time with short red hair and a dark red hooded cloak, comes to a stop alongside her, looking over the first girl's shoulder. The caller is a young blonde man with blood and dust all over his face.

"Jaune?"

<Weiss, please help!>

"Jaune, where are you?"

<Don't worry about me. I need you to go after Pyrrha. She went to go fight that lady at the top of the clock tower. There's no way she'll make it out of that alive!>

Weiss - "Jaune, are you okay?"

<DON'T WORRY ABOUT ME!>

Jaune's scream almost causes Weiss to drop her phone.

Jaune on the other end, says in a soft, desperate voice, "Please, you have to save Pyrrha."

Weiss - "We will. Where are you?"

Weiss and her red-haired friend can hear Jaune scream in rage, and then the phone's signal drops suddenly.

"Dammit! Ruby, how are we gonna get up there?"

Weiss gestures to the top of the tower.

Ruby, the girl in the red hood, nods and then backs up to give herself a running start. "I have a plan."

Weiss sighs and points her spire at the side of the tower. A line of white snowflake glyphs appear on the side of the tower, all the way to the top.

Weiss - "That's what they all say until their plan goes up in flames. This time it isn't surprising at all. So let's do this thing."

Ruby - "I'll go get Pyrrha, you go get Jaune?"

Weiss nods in confirmation.

Ruby darts forward with a speed that makes her look like a blur, using the glyphs as magnets to run up the side of the building. When Weiss can no longer see Ruby, she disengages her Semblance and turns to go find Jaune.

**// 843pm**

A woman with green hair and blood-red eyes is trying to ascend the elevator shaft, hoping she can convince Cinder to halt her attack. An explosion on the top floor rocks the whole tower, launching multiple chunks of steel of concrete down the shaft, with the woman narrowly avoiding being struck by the tumbling chunks.

**// 843pm**

Pyrrha, the girl with the shield, is trying to crush Cinder, the flaming woman, under several tons of fragmented steel gears. For a few seconds it works, until Cinder releases an explosion that breaks her out of this enclosure, launching a car-sized piece of steel at Pyrrha. Raising her shield to protect herself from extensive damage, Pyrrha takes the impact with a yelp and flies backwards, hitting the wall again and knocking the breath out of her lungs. A brilliant red light flashes once around her body, letting her know that her Aura is totally depleted.  
  
In a last-ditch effort to gain the upper hand, Pyrrha leaps to her feet and twirls once, using the momentum to launch her shield at Cinder, who at the same time releases a high-tension glass arrow toward Pyrrha. The shield and the arrow make contact, with the arrow splitting itself in half above and below the shield, and then reforming on the other side, and both weapons continue their own path.

In the middle of her twirl, the arrow impales itself in Pyrrha's Achilles tendon.

"Ah!"

Pyrrha falls forward on her hands and knees, struggling to rise again, but the searing pain prevents her from doing so. Cinder lowers her weapon and moves toward the downed redhead slowly.

**// 844pm**

Ruby has run out of wall to plant her feet on, and she finds herself hovering in the sky momentarily before plummeting down to the clock tower's destroyed top floor.  
  
The green-haired woman, Emerald, has reached the top floor as well, ready to play her mind trick on her master.  
  
Cinder circles her opponent with an evil smirk on her face.  
  
Pyrrha lay on the ground gasping for breath, staring at the arrow in her ankle.  
  
Emerald stands ready about ten yards away, focused on Cinder.  
  
"It's unfortunate that you were promised a power that was never truly yours," Cinder says.  
  
She brings her hand up to raise Pyrrha's chin softly, so that their eyes meet.  
  
"But take comfort in knowing that I will use it in ways you could never have imagined."  
  
Pyrrha squirms out of her hand and says to Cinder, "Do you believe in destiny?"  
  
Cinder's eyes flash briefly, and then they narrow in disgust as she stands and replies bluntly, "Yes."  
  
Cinder slowly moves into position, and a glass arrow materializes into her hand.  
  
At that moment, Ruby stares in horror at the arrow as the tension on the string grows.  
  
Emerald summons up all the strength she can muster, and throws a hand toward Cinder and Ruby, just as Cinder releases the arrow.

Pyrrha shuts her eyes tightly, waiting for death.

When she opens them, she can see Cinder walking away.

Ruby's eyes suddenly flash blinding white lights, as she screams in horror, "PYYRRHAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

Emerald rushes to Pyrrha's side and helps her up. Pyrrha gasps at the sharp pain in her right ankle as she hobbles toward the elevator with Emerald.  
  
Emerald takes one more look at her former master, and turns away.

**\- -**

**// February 6, 2016**

Nora, Ren, Jaune, and Team RWBY have all crammed into the hospital room to see their friend.  
  
Pyrrha is heavily sedated and passed out.  
  
Jaune is holding one of Pyrrha's hands with both of his.  
  
After half a day of silence, Ruby is the first to speak.  
  
"I thought she was dead," Ruby says in a soft voice.  
  
"But she isn't," Jaune assures. "And that's what matters." He looks at his feet in grief. "I don't know what I would do if I had lost her. If we, had lost her."  
  
Other than the beeping hospital equipment, the rest of the day is spent in silence.

  
**\- - - -**   



	2. Chapter 2

**// Monday April 16, 2029**

"Penny, sweety, are you almost ready? You're gonna be late for your bus!" Pyrrha yells into her house.  
  
A 12-year-old girl runs through the house. "MOM, WHAT DID YOU DO TO MY LUNCH?!"  
  
Pyrrha - "Hey, don't be like that, your lunch is in your backpack because you didn't put it in your backpack like I asked you to, so I did."  
  
Penny, the daughter of Pyrrha, yells from a different room, "BECAUSE I WAS GONNA PUT SOME MAYONNAISE ON MY SANDWICH!"  
  
Pyrrha looks in the direction of her daughter's voice. "Are you serious, quit screaming at me! Jeez!"  
  
Pyrrha has finished tying up her long red hair and she exits the bathroom. Her tall, blonde husband is standing outside the door, looking at his scroll.  
  
Pyrrha says in a silky voice, "Hi Jaune." She walks up behind him and puts her arms around him.  
  
Jaune returns the "hi" but is still glued to the phone.  
  
Pyrrha - "What's up?"  
  
Jaune - "Uh, they have a hostage situation in Mountain Home. Some Disciples seized a passenger train."  
  
Pyrrha's heart sinks. "Oh no."  
  
Pyrrha then sees an off-white square in the corner of her eye, Penny's sandwich.  
  
"Penny, I have your lunch, now come back here and put some mayo on it before you miss the bus by like three seconds again!"  
  
A rumbling on the upper floor echoes through the house before Penny leaps down the entire flight of stairs and grabs her sandwich.  
  
Pyrrha checks her own phone to find out how far away the city bus is.  
  
According to the transit app, the bus in question is traveling along seven-lane McCormick Street and will reach the bus stop across the street in less than one minute.  
  
"Penny, it's too late, your bus is almost here, let's go let's go!"  
  
"_Dammit_!"  
  
Pyrrha tries to hold back her laughter at Penny's unusual word choice.  
  
Jaune says softly so that only Pyrrha can hear, "Where does she come up with that shit?"  
  
"From you!" Pyrrha whispers back.  
  
Jaune whispers, "Are we gonna punish her for that?"  
  
Pyrrha - "We will not."  
  
Penny opens her backyard, punches her bag of food into it, closes the backpack, and runs out the door. "Bye everybody I love you!"  
  
"Love you too, be safe please!" Pyrrha and Jaune both shout as they watch through the open front door.  
  
Penny runs across all seven lanes without stopping, causing a barrage of horns. She makes it to the other side and waves her arms. Ten seconds later, a blue-white-and-green articulated bus stops to let her in.  
  
"You still think being this close to the bus is a good thing?" Jaune says.  
  
Pyrrha - "Yeah, why?"  
  
Jaune - "She's gonna get killed right there."  
  
Pyrrha - "That's a very violent thing to think about."  
  
Jaune makes the WTF gesture with both hands. "So is running across seven lanes of 35-mile-per-hour traffic like you don't have any sense."  
  
"She made it to the bus at least." Pyrrha smiles.  
  
"How can you be like that?"  
  
"Like what?"  
  
"No concern about the fact our daughter almost died in front of us for like the fourth time in a month. Nobody likes to stop when somebody else wants to cross. That's one reason why I don't like cities."  
  
Pyrrha walks around Jaune's recliner to face him, leaning her body down on top of him, giving him a rewarding view of the space unprotected by her leather battle suit. "And ... what's the other reason?"  
  
Pyrrha's smiles grows bigger the longer Jaune tries to come up with an answer, his eyes darting back and forth between Pyrrha's own eyes and her cleavage.  
  
Jaune finally says, "Are you serious?"  
  
Pyrrha flicks her eyebrows up at him and nods once.  
  
Jaune puts his hand up in surrender. "Fine. You win."  
  
Pyrrha leans in for a kiss, which Jaune returns.  
  
"By the way, the last time Penny almost got hit by her own bus was precisely thirty-eight days ago, soooooo, a month and a week." Pyrrha gets off of Jaune, zips up the rest of her suit, and starts to get herself ready to leave. Jaune has errands to do a bit later, and then he has to go to work, so he does not have to immediately get ready.  
  
Jaune - "No, that was only a month, nice try though."  
  
"A month and a _week_!"  
  
"Are you seriously keeping records of that?!"  
  
Pyrrha pokes her head from behind a wall and says "Yep!" before disappearing again.  
  
Jaune sits in his chair with a mixture of defeat and confusion on his face, before he throws his head backwards into the recliner and slumps down.

**\- -**

**// 721am**

Pyrrha's phone rings in her suit. She unzips her suit slightly and removes her phone from her cleavage. Blake's face is shown on the screen. She answers.

"Blake, I take it you heard about a potential Disciple Event in Mountain Home?"

Blake - <Good morning, Pyrrha. Why else would I be almost to your house?>

Pyrrha - "Seriously?! You should let me know earlier than this! I'm almost ready, I just need ..."

Pyrrha glances at her living room, thinking she left something behind. She feels her bodysuit swiftly, and determines she is not forgetting anything.

" ... I'm ready! Is that you right there by the bus?"

A silver SUV is making a right turn onto McCormick Street, ahead of the bus in question. Immediately after completing the turn, it drives across all three southbound lanes, goes into the center turn lane, makes a left turn across the three northbound lanes, and then pulls into Pyrrha's driveway behind Jaune's black Nissan Serenity. The driver door and the passenger door open simultaneously, but nobody is occupying the passenger seat. Blake emerges from the SUV.

"Yes it is! Get in!"

Pyrrha takes a step out the door and then turns back to the house. "Bye Jaune! I love you!" She usually gets an answer from him, but this time, there is no answer.

"Jaune?"

After not hearing her husband's call for a second time, Pyrrha closes to door, then turns and runs to Blake's SUV.

**\- - - -**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, women put phones in their breasts all the time, don't be like that.


	3. Chapter 3

**// 944am**

Penny's assignment from her engineering teacher is to draw anything related to engineering. Penny has never been good at the intricate designs of her favorite cities. She has learned instead to create the most realistic road designs ever seen on paper.

She is working on drawing a diverging diamond interchange, in which the two different directions of traffic cross paths with each other, once before moving across the freeway, and again after. Such a design makes it easier to make left turns onto the arterial.

She had once seen an article about an interchange in Mountain Home that was being rebuilt to have this design, and since then she has become fascinated with them.

Her freeway has three lanes in each direction, six total. The left sides of both directions have a shoulder separated by a solid yellow line. The outside shoulder is bordered by a solid white line, and the lanes are divided by dashed white lines.

Penny feels a light tap on the back of her head. Knowing she is almost out of time, she ignores whoever that is, and continues with her drawing. A few seconds later, the person forces her head forward trying to make her bang her head on the desk. She swivels her head around swiftly, her shouder-length cherry-red hair flowing with it. She glares at the boy scowling at her work.

Penny - "You know you aren't supposed to touch women without their consent, right? I'll give you a pass this one time if you leave me alone immediately."

The boy - "The assignment was to do a city skyline, not a road."

Penny - "The assignment was to draw something engineering-related. I don't know how to draw a city skyline, and it isn't just any road."

The boy reaches to grab Penny's work. "Yeah. Well. It sucks."

Penny's eyebrows shoot upwards. The boy tries reach over her shoulder to take the freeway from her. She brushes his arm away as she cocks her head to the side.

Penny - "Do you realize how important freeways even are?"

The boy - "You think I care what kind of road it is? It sucks. It has nothing to do with engineering. You are not doing the assignment correctly."

Penny - "I am doing the assignment correctly. This is a diverging diamond interchange. It was designed to help keep traffic flowing more efficiently. What did you think civil engineering is? Or are you an idiot as well as an asshole?"

The boy's eyes flash with rage, and he swiftly moves to grab Penny's hair and yank her out of her chair. Penny yelps and falls out of the chair onto her back. The boy reaches again for Penny's freeway. Penny sits up quickly and throws her balled fist at the boy's reproductive region. He drops the freeway, clutching his groin. Penny then grabs the back of his head, slams his face to the desk, then throws him backwards into a row of unused chairs. Some of the chairs tumble away with the force of his landing.

"Aaaawwww!"

Penny snarls, "You don't touch shit that doesn't belong to you! That's what your punk-ass gets!"

Penny stands up as the boy curls up on the floor. Several students are looking at her.

The teacher rushes over to them with a glare on her face. "What happened?"

Before Penny can defend herself, the boy groans, "She called me an idiot, and then hit me in the nuts!"

The teacher gives Penny a look of disappointment. Penny holds her hands up in a way that means "What the hell".

Penny tells her, "Alex yanked on my hair and then tried to destroy the freeway I worked really hard on."

Alex - "Because it ain't actual work!"

Penny - "Shut it, or I will make sure you can NEVER have kids!"

Teacher - "PENNY! What are you working on?"

Penny - "Are you serious, you don't even care - UGH. My assignment is to draw something in relation to engineering. I was working on a diverging diamond interchange. Alex came and started blasting me because HE DOESN'T THINK, a DIVERGING DIAMOND INTERCHANGE, is related to engineering!"

Alex - "Because it ain't!"

Teacher - "That's _enough_!"

More people are staring now.

The teacher looks at Penny first and speaks.

"Your parents will hear about this. You don't hit people here."

Penny sighs, knowing she is going to get an earful from her father when he hears about it.

"Alex, your own parents will be notified of your harassment. This is the last time. Maybe if you hadn't attacked Penny, she wouldn't have punched you in the nuts." She smiles slightly and dismisses both of them.

**\- - - -**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, Penny Nikos is named after Penny Polendina, the fallen android from the episode PVP (Pyrrha versus Penny).


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, everybody has that one light in your city where you sit at it forever because it doesn't change to green.

**// 1006am**

Jaune has just pulled into the driveway of his house. He turns off the car, and his mind wanders to his daughter.

Penny Nikos, his daughter, the result of a longtime, undying love with the woman he would do anything for.

Pyrrha narrowly survived her battle with Cinder in 2016, and while she was recovering, Jaune had taken up his combat training. Jaune slowly got better with his speed, power, and strikes. Lately he has been tired from working the day shift at the Davenport Hotel, and has been skipping on the training. Instead focusing his remaining energy on Pyrrha, and a tiny red-haired, blue-eyed female version of himself.

His thoughts are all interrupted by his phone, which is connected to the car by Bluetooth.

"Answer."

<Hello, is this Jaune Nikos? Penny's father?>

"This is he."

<Hi. Yes I need to talk to you about something that happened with your daughter.>

"Uh-oh."

<Penny was attacked by another student today over her class assignment. However she did also hit the boy in the nuts.>

Jaune makes the "what the hell" sign with his hands.

Jaune - "Why are you telling me that? You just said she got attacked. So I don't care what she did to the boy. Where is she?"

<She thought you were going to yell at her for fighting, so she left campus.>

Jaune facepalms himself.

"Are you serious, that doesn't tell me where she is. Where she's going. What direction was she heading in when she left? And why did you not stop her from leaving?"

The adult on the other end of the phone hesitates. <She walked to the nearest bus stop. She's in a bus. Once she gets in the bus, there's no way to know where she's going. People come to this school from 70 miles away.>

Jaune hangs his head and whispers "Aw come on."

Jaune speaks up again. "What does the bus look like? I'm gonna stop it and pick her up."

<It's an articulated bus with the manufacturer number 1762.>

"WHAT is an ARTICULATED BUS ?!"

<(sigh) The bus is twice as long as the regular ones and it can bend near the middle to get around corners.>

"Thanks."

Jaune hangs up the phone, opens the transit system app, and taps "Find a bus". Then he is prompted to enter the bus's manufacturer number.

=1762=

The app then shows Jaune a blue arrow that is heading westbound on Arryn Avenue.

Jaune restarts the car, throws it into reverse, and stomps on the gas pedal.

**\- -**

**// 1012am**

Jaune is now trapped in bumper-kissing traffic on Arryn Avenue. The road is three lanes wide on each side with a center left-turn lane for its entire 26-mile length. The transit app shows that while he is getting closer to his daughter's bus, he is still three miles behind it. The bus is getting ready to make a right turn to get on the Summer Freeway. Jaune is stuck at a red light that is notorious for staying red for several minutes straight.

Jaune whispers in frustration, "Aw perfect!"

After two minutes of tapping his thumbs on the steering wheel, Jaune sees a parking lot to the right and decides to take a shortcut. He turns the hazard lights on and floors it, yanking the steering wheel accordingly to swerve around the car in front of him.

According to the app, the bus has successfully merged onto the Summer Freeway, heading north towards downtown Mountain Home.

Jaune - "What the HELL!"

Jaune can see a different way to get to the freeway. Drive one mile northbound on four-lane, one-way Ruby Street, just before it becomes seven-lane, two-way Division Street, turn left onto seven-lane Oum Avenue for three miles, and finally, the freeway.

Jaune is half a mile towards Oum Avenue when he sees flashing lights behind him. He glances at the speedometer, his car is moving 46 miles per hour. He groans and decelerates.

The officer gets out of her car and comes up to Jaune. She has long blonde hair and bright lilac eyes.

"Sir, I'mma need your license and registra -"

She takes a good look at him. "Jaune?"

Jaune's face goes blank. "Yang?"

Yang - "Why are you driving like that?"

Jaune - "Somebody attacked my daughter at school today, but instead of waiting for me to get there, she left. I need to get to her, but she got in a bus towards Downtown, so I'm trying to catch up to the bus. If I don't catch it before it reaches Downtown, I'll never be able to find her in that traffic nightmare."

Yang - "Where's the bus?"

Jaune - "It's heading north on the Summer Freeway."

Yang - "Okay. I'll lead you there. You need to honk for me when you see it. Let me hear it now so I know it's you."

Jaune honks.

Yang - "Okay! Follow me!"

Yang gets back in her car, turns the sirens on, and speeds ahead of Jaune. He follows her, with his hazard lights still flashing.

The rain begins.

Jaune - "Aw, I hope this isn't a thunderstorm. Pyrrha's gonna be pissed."

**\- - - -**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Pyrrha has a painful reaction to thunderstorms in this fic, just like she does in all my fics involving her.
> 
> Division and Ruby Streets in the fic are named after, and inspired by, the real-life Division/Ruby one-way couplet in Spokane, Washington. In the story and in real life, the two one-way roads are four lanes wide each, until they join together to become Division Street, with 3 lanes on each side and a center left-turn lane.
> 
> Arryn Avenue is named after Blake's voice actress, Arryn Zech.
> 
> Summer Freeway is named in honor of Summer Rose, the mother of Ruby Rose in canon.


	5. Chapter 5

**// 1014am**

Pyrrha watches the train like a hawk while perched on top of an apartment tower in Mountain Home. The rain falls on her back hard as she watches.

Pyrrha says in her microphone - "Blake, I'm in position."

Blake - <Okay.>

Pyrrha - "Whoever's in the train is just walking around."

Emerald - <We don't appear to have a plan of action if something happens.>

Pyrrha - "We should have a plan. I thought we agreed on trying to get the Disciples to surrender peacefully."

Emerald - "AIN'T GONNA WORK."

Pyrrha - "So if it doesn't work, one of us will need to hijack an articulated city bus to evacuate the train passengers."

Blake - <How do we evacuate a train that can move faster than a bus?>

Emerald - <Actually wait ... The city purchased a crap-load of new busses last year. These new busses can hit 250 miles per hour if the need arises. The trains currently in use can only move 200 miles per hour, and to be fair, and honest, the new busses are faster and a little more advanced than the trains.>

Pyrrha - "Well that's good. So if the train starts moving, somebody can 'commandeer' a new bus, catch up to the train, and get the train passengers into the bus."

Emerald - <Pyrrha, where are you in relation to the train?>

Pyrrha - "I'm on an apartment tower next to the Sands Park-and-Ride, right before the train line goes between the freeway's two directions of traffic."

Emerald - "It's raining and you're ON, an apartment tower? Did you not see the Weather Channel this morning?"

Pyrrha - "Why, is this a thunderstorm? I don't watch the Weather Channel. They're never accurate."

Emerald - "Well how's that inaccuracy workin' out?"

Pyrrha looks to the sky. The clouds are heavy and the rain is being dumped from the sky now.

Emerald - <It _is_ a thunderstorm.>

Pyrrha, unenthusiastic - "Uh ... pretty good?"

Emerald half-heartedly says, <I hope you don't get hurt.>

Blake - <What's the name of that freeway?>

Pyrrha, bluntly - "I don't know."

Blake - <How do you not know?>

Pyrrha - "Are you serious? What KIND of question is that?"

Emerald - <Well at least how wide is the freeway?>

Pyrrha - "It's five lanes wide in each direction. As wide as they all are within the city."

Blake - <Yeah that doesn't tell us what freeway it is.>

Pyrrha, in exasperation - "Why is the freeway's name so important?!"

Blake - <Because there are _three_ freeways within a mile of the Sands Park-and-Ride!>

Pyrrha - "Well I don't see a sign that says - wait wait ..."

Pyrrha suddenly does see a large green road sign. It is not as big as she thought it should be. She squints to read it, and then speaks.

Pyrrha - "Okay, it's the Summer Freeway."

Emerald and Blake - <Thank you!>

Pyrrha sighs, "Welcome."

A soft rolling thunder hits her. She winces in mild pain.

Emerald - <Yeah there's that thunder. You okay Pyrrha?>

Pyrrha - "I'm good. Thank you."

Blake - <Okay, I'm ready. I'm by the Olive Tower. Wait, Pyrrha I think I can see you. Can you see me waving?>

Pyrrha looks down and she does indeed see somebody dressed in all black on the sidewalk waving their arms.

Pyrrha - "I see you. Okay Emerald, where are you?"

Emerald - <I'm by the Woodland Science Center. Pretty close to the Sands Park-and-Ride.>

Pyrrha smiles. "We're all here."

About three seconds later, a muffled gunshot echoes through the city, with the inside of the train flashing white.

All three women gasp. Immediately afterward, another gunshot within the train and another flash.

Blake - <Passengers down!>

Pyrrha, her eyes wide - "Aaww shit."

Emerald - <Let's go let's go!>

Without a second thought, Pyrrha grabs her shield, Akouo, and leaps off the side of the building, falling for about four seconds. She curls her body into a ball and puts the shield on the side of her body that will hit first. She uses the shield to cushion her fall, cracking the sidewalk. She grunts as the impact sends shocks through her body. Sprinting at nearly 35 miles per hour, she crosses the 5-lane one-way arterial, heading straight for the wall of the train. She activates her polarity Semblance, propelling herself through the outside wall to the inside of the train.

Blake sprints toward the second car and then leaps clear over it to the other side. Using Gambol Shroud, she makes two slashes in one of the doors and then rips the pieces away. She enters the train.

"_Get out of the train right now_!"

The remaining passengers in the first train car scream as Pyrrha crashes through the wall. Immediately a man in all black, just like Pyrrha but without the grey armored plates, fires four shots at her. Pyrrha blocks them all with Akouo, running straight at the man. She knocks the gun out of his hands, dodges a hurtling fist, and uses her momentum from the dodge to knock him back with a powerful blow from Akouo. As the man struggles to get up, Pyrrha turns around to address the passengers.

"I need _everyone_ in this train to disembark immediately!"

**\- - - -**


	6. Chapter 6

**// 1018am**

All passengers in the first car obey hastily and exit through either the open doors or the hole in the left side of the car.

The man, who is as tall as Pyrrha (6 feet 2 inches), has a second handgun and a grenade launcher.

He says into an unseen microphone, "Floor it." He then points his handgun at fleeing passengers, preparing to kill them.

Pyrrha focuses her Semblance on the gun. As the Disciple leader fires six times, the bullets never leave the barrel of the weapon, and each shot tears the gun apart from the inside.

The train lurches forward toward its freeway alignment.

The man throws his useless weapon at Pyrrha, who deflects it with Akouo. She throws her hand towards him, hoping he has metal in his suit somewhere, getting her answer when he floats backwards and crashes into the door. He fires a grenade at her, she knocks it out the window before it explodes. Pyrrha takes a hold of the ceiling with her Semblance, and a chunk of it falls down toward the Disciple, who dodges to the left. Pyrrha uses her Semblance to slingshot herself at the man, but he leaps straight up, through the new hole in the roof of the train.

Pyrrha slides past him and crashes through the door to the control room, tackling one of the guys. His head slams as against the floor, rendering him unconscious. She effortlessly throws him backwards out of the room and forces the second guy, who is bulkier than the leader, into a fight. This guy's movements are slow but powerful. He gets a few hits in on Pyrrha, who cries out in pain from each blow. She has had enough now, and decides to use her "power move" on him.

She hits him in the face with Akouo in her left arm. Then she thrusts her right fist at his stomach, rendering him unable to breathe. She kicks his legs out from under him, then delivers a crushing downward blow, again with her right fist.

The guy crashes to the floor, unconscious.

**// 1019am**

On the Summer Freeway, Jaune is still following police officer Yang Xiao Long. They keep to the two left lanes, while traffic moves over to the three right lanes to let them through. Eventually Jaune sees the bus that contains everyday commuters and Jaune's daughter Penny.

He honks.

Yang turns her siren wail off but leaves the lights on, pulling in front of the bus. Jaune pulls up between her and the bus. He gets out and closes the door, leaving the hazard lights on.

Inside the bus, the passengers are conversing amongst each other in confusion, wondering why they were stopped. Penny, who is seated in the back, just continues to stare out the window.

Yang motions for the young female bus driver to open the front door. She obeys.

Yang and Jaune then board the bus.

Jaune - "Where is my daughter?!"

Penny is startled into attention at the sound of her father's voice. "Dad?"

Jaune - "Come to the front of the bus please."

Penny swallows dryly and does as her father says. It takes her about eight seconds to get to her father.

Jaune says nothing when she reaches him. He simply opens his arms wide. Penny wraps her own arms around him and starts sobbing.

Penny - "I'm sorry Dad! I'm so sorry."

Jaune - "It's okay. You're not in trouble. I just wanted you to be safe."

Jaune and Penny stay in their hug for twenty more seconds.

Penny peels herself off of Jaune, who blows his six-inch-long hair out of his face. He wipes the tears off her face.

Jaune - "Are you okay now?"

Penny nods.

Jaune - "Sorry for embarrasing you in front of the whole bus."  
  
Penny shrugs.

Jaune says, "Next time something happens at school, please just wait me to pick ya up."

Penny - "Okay."

Jaune says "I love you" and pulls Penny into his chest in another hug.

Faint siren wails are starting to be heard over the sound of the rain, growing steadily louder.

Jaune - "Let's get out of here."

Penny nods again and starts following him.

They both are almost back to the front door when Yang's police radio erupts.

<All units. We have a Disciple Event in progress on the Summer Freeway, heading northbound on the rails. We have civilians and three SFK fighters in the train.>

Yang - "Okay, this is Unit 620, I'm heading -"

A train rushes past the bus just then, travelling way faster than it is supposed to within city limits.

Yang - "Dispatch, I think the Disciple Event just passed my location. I may need immediate backup."

Immediately afterward, about twenty Mountain Home Police vehicles roar past the bus as well.

Dispatch - <That must mean your backup is just about there now.>

Yang "Nope, they all just passed this location. I'm on it."

Dispatch - <One of the SFK fighters said she needs to commandeer a large bus so they can evacuate the train.>

Yang sighs.

Jaune - "That's this bus, isn't it?"

Yang nods to him, then turns to face the crowd.

Yang - "Whoever is able to get out of this bus immediately, must do so as soon as I stop talking Another bus will come pick you up!"

All passengers disembark.

Jaune then gets a phone call from his wife Pyrrha, who is speaking quickly and frantically.

Pyrrha - <Jaune, if you aren't doing anything important, I need you!>

Before he can get a word in, Pyrrha hangs up the phone.

Jaune glances at Yang, who simply gives him a short nod of authorization.

Jaune and Penny take seats inside the bus.

Yang looks to the bus driver, who has not said a word through the whole thing.

Yang points - "Follow me."

Yang gets back in her police car and screeches ahead.

The driver nods, puts her seatbelt and the hazard lights on, and stomps on the gas pedal.

**// 1023am**

Pyrrha can hear Blake and Emerald in the next car firing their weapons in machine-gun form.

She starts trying to figure out how to stop the train. As soon as she touches the throttle lever, something hits the back of her head, causing tiny stars in her vision and forcing her to spin on her heels.

He surprises her with a painful, powerful punch to her face, which knocks her backwards onto the control panel. He swings again with his left fist, which Pyrrha manages to dodge. His fist shatters the windows instead. His right fist connects with her clavicle, snapping it. She lets out a short scream of pain. Her back crashes against the control panel, and the guy brings both fists above his head and swings down. Pyrrha uses Akouo to block his strike, but he is slowly crushing her into the control panel, which starts sparking. Her back is pressed against the throttle lever, so much that the train slowly accelerates unbeknownst to them, until the throttle lever snaps, rendering the train uncontrollable.

Pyrrha brings her left knee up to his nuts, making him release her. She throws the shield at his foot, audibly shattering multiple bones. He screams and stumbles backwards. He attempts to hit her with his right fist, but Pyrrha blocks it with her shield, then uses it to slam him to the floor.

Blake and Emerald's battle with the Disciple leader has moved to the roof.

Still conscious, the man tries to sit up. Pyrrha puts one foot on his chest and forces him to stay down.

Pyrrha - "You have exactly eight seconds from now to say 'I surrender' or I will throw you out of the train. I don't want to do that, but I will."

The guy - "I'll NEVER surrender!"

Pyrrha says quickly - "Okay!"

Pyrrha grabs him with both hands and throws him out the door, then jumps through the hole in the ceiling.  
  
**// 1024am**

Yang dodges the man bouncing along the freeway, but the bus is moving too fast to be able to avoid him. His body crashes into the right side of the bus, putting cracks all over the windshield, and then disappears.

Penny screams.

Bus driver - "Shit!"

Jaune - "Keep driving keep driving!"

The bus and the Mountain Home Police are keeping pace with the train, which is moving at 95 miles per hour and slowly accelerating.

Jaune can see three women on top of the train - Pyrrha, Blake, and Emerald - battling two Disciples.

Penny - "It's Mom!"

**// 1025am**

The battle is happening on top of the eighth car, the last car the makes up the whole train. The roof is getting slippery from the rain. The vehicles are whipping up sheets of mist.

Pyrrha yells, "Blake! I need you to open up the left side of the bus so we can move the rest of the passengers in!"

Blake - "Okay!"

Blake hangs from the right side of the train, using her remaining hand to cut two vertical slashes and one horizontal slash into the wall of the train. She then peels it away to create a makeshift platform to stand on.

Yang sees what Blake is doing, and moves her police cruiser next to the platform.

The bus driver sees this as well and lines the bus up with the police cruiser.

Blake - "Thanks Yang!"

Yang - "Oh hi Blake!"

Blake steps on top of Yang's police car and makes a similar door in the left side of the bus. Then she starts leading people from the train to the bus with remarkable speed.

About three miles ahead is a stack interchange and then a curve designed for 45 miles per hour. The train, the bus, and the police are moving at nearly 140 miles per hour.

The Disciple leader, walking on top of the seventh car, knows he is about to be defeated and switches to his grenade launcher as a last resort.

Pyrrha - "Uh-oh."

He launches three grenades.

Pyrrha deflects them.

One explodes far to the side.

The next one flies to the bus and explodes just ahead of it, the bus driving effortlessly through the ball of flames.

Jaune - "Shit!"

The third grenade explodes right next to the train, causing Pyrrha to fall on her back. The explosion launches Emerald off the train, and through a large green exit sign. The sign shatters and its pieces fly ahead of the train, with some landing on the police vehicles. About half of them manage to dodge the flying sign pieces, but the rest are not able to, and they crash and flip end over end.

Pyrrha - "Emeraaaalld!"

From this position Pyrrha is unable to deflect the fourth and final grenade.

Pyrrha gasps, punches a hole through the roof with assistance from her polarity Semblance, and jumps in.

The grenade explodes next to the roof of the train, destroying it and flinging pieces of the eighth train car everywhere. Several cars on the southbound side of the freeway are hit with flying metal.

As the train passes underneath the four-level stack interchange, Pyrrha stands up and gazes at the trailing flames in utter heartbreak.

Pyrrha - "Noooo."

She then hears someone yelling her name, and she looks out the shattered window. She gasps when she sees Jaune peeking his head out of the left-side "door" to the bus.

Jaune - "THE TRAIN'S GONNA CRASH! GET IN THE BUS!"

Pyrrha is too late.

The train hits the 45-mile-per-hour curve at 146 miles per hour, flipping over the five southbound lanes. The forward train car smashes into the side of a tanker truck, the ensuing fireball taking up Pyrrha's field of vision. The train tumbles for four seconds, with Pyrrha tumbling uncontrollably inside it, until the entire train slams into the water below. Pyrrha's Aura shatters as her body crashes through multiple doors. Her head hits a wall, and she falls unconscious.

**\- - - -**


	7. Chapter 7

**/****/** **1026am**

Jaune watches in horror as the train flies over the side of the freeway and disappears from view.

"Pyrrha!"

He sees the curve straight ahead. He throws himself to the floor, grabs Penny and Blake, and activates his Aura-amplification Semblance.

The bus driver slams on the brakes, as do all the police cars. The bus driver swerves to avoid them all, causing Jaune, Penny, Blake, and the evacuated train passengers to be tossed around. The left side of the bus slams against the wall separating the rails from the northbound traffic lanes, sparks flying from the friction of grinding metal and concrete. The people scream as the windows on the left side shatter. It takes about ten seconds for the bus to completely stop.

A Vale airship soars over them, previously unnoticed by Jaune.

Penny is on top of Jaune when they finally stop.

"Penny! Blake! You guys okay?"

Penny nods, Blake breathlessly says, "Yeah."

Jaune lays there dazed for a second, until he snaps into action.

"Blake, take Penny!"

Blake - "Hey Jaune, wait! I can't -"

The thunder crashes as Jaune jumps out of the bus and sprints away.

Jaune leaps over both train rails in one jump and sprints across all five southbound lanes, unhindered by cars. He stops at the edge and peers down.

"PYRRHA!"  
  
He looks at the water for any movement. He can tell where the train hit the water about two-hundred feet from the shore, but he cannot see the train.

"PYR-RHAAAAAA!"

Jaune starts to take his hoody off so he can jump in the water. Blake appears behind him and grips both his shoulders with both hands and forces him to sit down.

"Jaune, get back in the bus!"

Jaune struggles - "Get off me!"

"_Get back in the bus_!"

"Quit!"

Blake - "JAUNE!"

Jaune looks at her. Blake points. His eyes follow her finger.

Directly below the freeway is a concrete field full of containers, not water.

Blake - "If you jump, you will not survive the impact."

Jaune backs away from the edge and kneels on both knees. Blake approaches him slowly, trying to comfort him.

Overwhelmed by the tremendous loss he is feeling, Jaune suddenly balls up one fist ...

"AAAAAAHH!"

... and punches the concrete surface as hard as he can, shattering his hand, his Aura, and the concrete.

Jaune and Blake fall. Blake whips one ribbon of Gambol Shroud toward a piece of exposed rebar. Then she whips her other ribbon towards Jaune, who attempts to grab onto it with his broken hand.

He misses.

"Jaune!"

Jaune falls for two more seconds along with multiple large chunks of concrete, and his body lands next to a container, creating a shockwave that blows the other containers away from it in a circular shape. Jaune's body makes a crater in the ground, with the concrete chunks slamming into the ground around him.

Blake stares at the crater in horror, eyes wide and mouth agape, not bothering to try to pull herself up.

**\- -**

Pyrrha feels coldness and pain all over her body. She wakes up and tries to gasp, but her lungs fill with water.

She chokes on the water, coughing out some of her oxygen. She can see Akouo, the shield, in the murky water. She tries to pull it with her, but it is lodged into the floor. She plants her feet on the floor and uses her legs to press against it, while holding on to the shield in an attempt to save it. After three attempts, she is forced to leave the shield behind.

She does not know what train car she is in, she just knows she needs to get out of the train before she drowns.

She can see the windows, identified by the brighter square shapes, and she swims over to one. This window is still intact. To the next window. Also still intact.

Pyrrha's lungs are burning. She releases some more air, holds onto a pole with her right hand, and starts punching the window with her left hand in desperation. After two punches it cracks a little bit.

She releases the pole and uses her polarity Semblance with both hands, making the edges of the window shrink, trying the break the glass. Her tactic works. She grabs the edge of the window and pulls herself out of the sinking train, swimming like a dolphin towards the surface, periodically exhaling her remaining air.

She instinctively gasps again, and her lungs fill with water once more, but she keeps swimming.

As soon as she can feel her hand poke above the surface of the water, Pyrrha loses consciousness again.

**\- -**

Blake is still hanging off the edge of the damaged freeway. She can hear more sirens approaching. She starts seeing ambulances pull into the destroyed container field, with the EMT medics looking for Jaune.

The Vale airship swoops over to Blake. As soon as it is next to her, she jumps in.

Airship pilot yells, "Are you okay ma'am?!"

Blake responds, "Yeah! But I need you to go over where the train hit the water! My friend was still in train when it hit!"

The airship then flies toward the water, hovering just above the surface. After ten seconds, Blake spots a mass of long red hair floating on top of the water.

Blake - "Over there!"

The airship goes closer to Pyrrha's unmoving body, which is starting to sink back underwater.

Blake jumps out of the airship and swims furiously to her. Wrapping one arm around Pyrrha's waist, she swims toward to shore with the other arm. The pilot of the airship aims his craft toward Blake, who grabs onto the edge of the open floor with her free hand.

Once Blake has a hold on the craft, the pilot flies back to the shore.

Blake lets go of the airship and falls about fourteen feet, holding Pyrrha in both arms, until she lands gracefully on the concrete. She lays Pyrrha down on her back and begins CPR.

Pyrrha coughs awake after four chest compressions, sitting into an upright position. Pyrrha continues to cough up all the water in her lungs, taking gasps when she can. Blake lays a soft hand on Pyrrha's back. Once Pyrrha is breathing somewhat normally, she turns her head to face Blake.

"Thank you."

Blake nods once. "Are you okay now?"

Pyrrha - "I am."

Pyrrha looks around at all the disorganized containers.

"What happened here?"

Blake averts her eyes. "Jaune."

Pyrrha gasps, and her eyes grow wide.

Blake - "He became distressed, punched a hole the road, and fell."

Pyrrha quickly glances at an ambulance, then at the damaged freeway, then at Blake, and then she gets up and sprints toward the ambulance.

One of the EMTs says, "He's alive! Get him in the bed!"

Blake stands and watches Pyrrha run up to the crowd of EMTs. One of them tries to stop her.

"Move, that's my husband, move!"

The medic lets her in and she kneels next to Jaune.

Jaune is staring up into space, looking at nothing.

"Jaune!"

Pyrrha puts a hand to the side of his dust-covered face.

"Jaune?"

Jaune's head slowly shifts so his eyes can focus on her.

Jaune whispers in a hoarse voice - "Pyrrha."

Pyrrha's eyes start streaming tears as she holds his face with both hands and touches her forehead to his.

After about ten seconds, another EMT says, "Ma'am, we need to take him now."

Pyrrha releases Jaune and backs away. The medics put him on the stretcher and cart him to the nearest ambulance.

Pyrrha tries to get in the ambulance with him. A medic stops her.

"I'm sorry ma'am. I can't let you in here. You may follow us to the hospital but you may not come in."

Pyrrha backs off with tears in her eyes as the medic closes both doors, cutting off her view of Jaune.

Blake puts a soft hand on her shoulder.

Blake - "Come on. Yang's offering us a ride."

**\- - - -**


	8. Chapter 8

**// Monday April 16, 2029**   
** // 1106 am**

Pyrrha and Blake are in the backseat of Yang's police cruiser, with Penny sitting in front. The rain is still pounding, making it difficult to see through the windshield, even with the windshield wipers on at full speed.

It has been almost a half hour since the end of the so-called Disciple Event, the fourth such event ever since the formation of the Security of Four Kingdoms. Yang has the police radio on, and she and the others can hear another police officer say the number of killed - eight civilians and twenty-seven police officers, a total of thirty-five, making this the first Disciple Event in history to result in a loss of life.

Yang's police cruiser is stuck on four-lane one-way Venice Avenue near the downtown core, having not moved more than a hundred feet in the last ten minutes, due to the area's notorious perpetual gridlock.

A flash of lightning illuminates the scene, and thunder follows immediately afterwards, causing Pyrrha to double over and groan in pain.

Yang looks in her rearview mirror. "Are you okay P-Money? I hope you aren't givin' birth in this car!"

Pyrrha chuckles at this remark. "No Officer, my Semblance is being affected by this thunderstorm. I'm not pregnant. At least I don't think I am."

Blake swings her head dramatically to face Pyrrha, who shrugs in defence.

"You know who I am P-Money, I better not hear that from your lips again, understand?" Yang says with a wild grin on her face.

Yang honks the horn for no reason other than she is bored, which triggers a horn-honking spree throughout the downtown core.

Pyrrha instinctively says "Yes Officer". Yang's fun expression turns serious.

"What did I just say?!"

Pyrrha gasps and starts to try to say "I'm sorry Officer", but Blake covers Pyrrha's whole face with her left hand and pushes it back into the seat.

Yang - "And what happened to that other girl who was with you? Where'd she go?"

Pyrrha gasps again. "Emerald! Did they find her? Is she okay?"

Blake shakes her head sadly and looks down to her lap. "She's dead. There's no way she survived crashing through that sign at the speed we were moving."

Pyrrha's face is contorted with sorrow, tears streaming down face.

"I'm sorry Pyrrha," Blake nearly whispers.

Penny turns around in her seat and grabs one of her mother's hands to comfort her. Pyrrha forces herself to smile for her daughter.

Blake says, "When we do this, we try to save as many as we can. Sometimes it doesn't mean everybody. But we do it because that's our job. And everybody knows they can count on us to do our job."

Pyrrha - "Are you serious, we just lost thirty-five people. That doesn't say people can count on us, that says we can't be trusted with their lives."

Yang jumps into the conversation right here. "No it doesn't. Sometimes bad things just happen. Sometimes we can't do anything about those bad things. It's the reason why I have a metal arm now. It's why we're going to the hospital now, it's why we're missing a nineteen-meter-long section of the Summer Freeway. We all did the best we could in the situation. All things considered, we could have lost way more people today. It's part of the job. We should be able to handle it. We can handle it."

Pyrrha tries to say something else, but her whole face is covered by Blake's hand again.

"Pyrrha ... " Blake shakes her head slowly to signal Pyrrha to be quiet. Blake removes her hand, and Pyrrha leans her head on the rain-chilled window.

"I'm sorry Emerald ..."

**// 1120am**

Yang's police cruiser finally arrives at the Eastwind Medical Center, and she gets out so she can open Pyrrha and Blake's doors. The two women and Penny emerge from the car.

Pyrrha, Penny, and Blake go to the desk while Yang finds a place to park.

The desk receptionist - "Good morning ma'am, what can I do for you?"

Pyrrha speaks up first, "I need to see Jaune Nikos. He's severely injured."

Receptionist - "He is here, may I ask why?"

Pyrrha - "He's my husband."

Penny - "He's my father."

Blake - "He's my friend."

The receptionist's eyes widen and she then points down the hall. "Room 44, on the left side past the bathrooms."

Officer Yang has rejoined the main group. The four women approach the door to Jaune's room just as a doctor is emerging. Pyrrha stops her.

"How is he?"

Doctor - "He's stable, but suffered severe spinal injuries in the fall. He has a punctured lung and mild internal bleeding. He's in a medically induced coma because he kept trying to talk, and talking would have worsened the damage to his lung."

Pyrrha nods her thanks, and she and the other three women make a move to go in. Pyrrha's ringing phone stops them all.

Pyrrha - "Go ahead, I'll be in in a moment."

Yang, Blake, and Penny file in and close the door softly.

"Hello?"

<Hi, may I speak with Jaune please?>

"Jaune can't come to the phone now. He's my husband, may I ask who this is?"

<My name is Venesa, with the Davenport Hotel in Vale. I'm his housekeeping boss. I needed him to come in today because he's our best housekeeper and we had a busy day, but he failed to show up.>

Pyrrha has to take a moment to hold her tears and sobs back.

Pyrrha - "Jaune was involved in the Disciple Event in Mountain Home. Jaune tells me you're on your phone all the time, so if that's true, you may have already seen the news. He almost died today. He is in critical condition at the Eastwind Medical Center, he cannot come to the phone, and he cannot come to work until further notice."

Jaune's boss can hear the shaking of Pyrrha's voice. She sighs.

"Please give him my best regards. He has as long as he needs to recover. His pay will be unaffected. I'm so sorry to bother you Miss Nikos."

Pyrrha shakily whispers, "Thank you," and hangs up. She sinks down to the floor, sliding along the wall, until she is sitting against it. Putting her face in her knees, she sobs quietly.

Several minutes later, she stands up and goes in the room.

Jaune has bruises and dried blood all over his face, with blood in his hair as well. A breathing tube is attached to his mouth. His skin is almost a ghostly white.

Pyrrha and Penny slowly approach him and lay their arms across his body in a loving embrace. Blake and Yang embrace each other a few feet back.

Pyrrha takes a shaky breath, and then she whispers, "I thought he was going to die."

Blake replies, "He isn't though. And that's all that matters."

**\- - - -**


End file.
